Accepted guess Not a possible answer B tier for first-turn info

FALES

FALES is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

No dictionary definition for FALES is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 94.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check FALES on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How FALES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FALES as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 120 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,907 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 guesses in games solved within six turns.

Try your feedback pattern

Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe FALES used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.

5.07 Entropy (bits)
120 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 87% of evaluated openers
0.87 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FALES performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,907 Rank among openers
Opening with FALES left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,907 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
880
4 guesses
1,206
5 guesses
184
6 guesses
10
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
34%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

FALES can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

319 answers
223 answers
147 answers
134 answers
126 answers
120 answers
113 answers
103 answers
96 answers
75 answers
70 answers
55 answers
53 answers
47 answers
47 answers
43 answers
36 answers
34 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for FALES; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

F4A1L1E1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Strategy after playing FALES

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FALES.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FALES:

13% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
9% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
6% chance
Suggested:
SHORT

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

13.4%
COUNT 5.82 bits
9.4%
TRINE 5.36 bits
6.2%
SHORT 5.20 bits
5.6%
TRAIN 5.35 bits
5.3%
TONER 4.47 bits
5.1%
RONTE 4.11 bits
4.8%
TRADE 4.92 bits
4.3%
COULD 4.84 bits
4.0%
RONTE 4.65 bits
3.2%
ALTAR 4.24 bits

Research on FALES

Game-tree analysis and word research for FALES, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with FALES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,744 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with FALES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, because the two figures score different answer lists.

These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers). They do not use the site's working answer pool.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it FAYLZ.

Rhymes with SALES WALES FAILS MALES TALES

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FALES sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).